Democrats are having an “honest conversation” about former President Barack Obama’s legacy, 2020 presidential hopeful Cory Booker said Thursday, after Democratic candidates questionedsome of Obama’s record during Wednesday night’s CNN debate.
“Look, he is our statesman, and anybody who was an executive — I, too, was an executive, two terms of a city — he ain’t perfect. Nobody has pulled that off,” Booker, a current senator who was a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said on CNN’s “New Day” Thursday. “And I’m sure (if) Barack Obama was sitting here … He will tell you, ‘I made some mistakes.'”
Some Democratic candidates on Wednesday night brought up Obama’s immigration policies and millions of deportations that occurred during his presidency as a way to challenge former Vice President Joe Biden.
Booker, however, said Thursday that Democrats are “having an honest conversation about an administration that was incredible.”
“The reality is we have a situation right now where we have a President that is doing things to this country that are perverting our very values and ideals,” Booker said of Trump.
“And talking about what our plans would be different than the previous president, different than the current president, is not a bad thing,” he added.
Obama remains highly popularamong base Democratic voters, and Booker expressed his admiration for the 44th president.
“Heck, if he were running for president for a third term, I wouldn’t be running,” Booker told CNN on Thursday.
